The Dirt Road
by Recognition2
Summary: He walks quietly, carefully, down the road leading to town. It's been long, much too long, and though he's walked on this road millions of times before, the soft, malleable dirt feels foreign beneath his worn sneakers. - Red, Blue, and Leaf. Implied Conflictingshipping. Rated T for suggested adult themes.


**Disclaimer: I just realized I had to (and if not had to, should) do this, so... I don't own Pokemon in any way, shape, or form. It's called fanfiction for a reason.**

* * *

He walks quietly, carefully, down the road leading into town. It's been long, much too long, and though he's walked on this road millions of times before, the soft, malleable dirt feels foreign underneath his worn sneakers.

Everything, really, seems like a distant memory, and though he knows this is his home, he can't remember the time. It's as though his memories have gone with the cold wind, the endless snow, and no matter how hard he tries, he feels out of place without them.

It's too warm down here, this close to civilization, although in reality it's actually late fall and quite cold. His body is too accustomed to the icy chill way up there, in Mount Silver he means, and he finds it's a miracle that he hasn't fallen victim to frostbite yet.

_Tap, tap, tap._

Faint prints are left where his feet touch, and he can remember the times when he and Blue would hop around right after it rained, making muddy messes out of themselves.

It's like he has amnesia. Although he doesn't know whether his mind is just deceiving him, his surroundings send a wave of nostalgia that drowns him willingly. Memories of what had been shock his soul, reminding him of the years that have flown by.

It's much too quick, in his opinion.

It's why he likes Mount Silver. Though flowers may sprout and grow and wither and die, that mountain was timeless, and that was all he wanted.

He never wanted things to change.

But alas, not even he could escape the test of time, and soon he noticed that his build was no longer of a child, but of a man. His face was aged, though still youthful, and though he never used it much, his voice was suddenly much, much deeper than it had been. It actually sort of compelled him to speak more, just so he could hear the strange sound erupt from his lips and wonder if that was really him, because it sounded so _empty_ and _broken_ and he was sure that he was still alive somewhere inside. But from time to time, he'd glance into a mirror and see a piercing gaze stare back at him, and he was sure that it was a completely different man he was looking at. Because once upon a time, way back when their hearts were still pure and their minds weren't corrupted, and the world was a curious little thing to discover rather than the place he wanted out of the most, he'd look at himself in the mirror and see happiness, innocence, excitement to see more of the wondrous place he lived in.

But now, his eyes just seemed... _vacant._

So as the mountain stays the same year in and year out, he changes, and this frustrates him because that was the whole reason why he'd gone to the isolated area in the first place. And it scares him, too, because if he can't fit into this place and can't fit in down there, with the rest of the world, where else can he go?

The more he tries to resist change, the more it reels him forward, fiercely and forcefully, and though he had once tried to battle it (he was sure he could win, because after all, battling was what he was best at), he realizes he has no choice but to follow until the cold truth of it all dawns on him: _he has already lost._

And all that he's left with after the revelation is a best friend who he's sure hates him, and another who longs for his return. A mother, anxious and worried because he hasn't called in years, and a father-figure of sorts who had casted him away on his journey in the first place and has faith he will come back to him again. A whole universe wondering and awaiting the Legendary Trainer to announce his arrival back to civilization, and a title he never wanted yet has shaped his life to all that it was and is and will be. But most importantly, he finds out that he has time, all the time the world allows him, to cope and accept all that he was and is and will be (or at least hopes to be).

And he has.

And that is why he has returned, returned to this place after years upon years, because he now knows this is where he belongs. Yet he is scared, scared because he does not know how everyone will react to his return and scared because after this, he had nowhere else to go. But he walks confidently, fearlessly, down the dirt road, his footprints a reminder of the life he has left behind, which he is sure is for the best

But his feet does not take him to his house, where he had planned to meet his mother. It does not take him to Blue's house, where he had planned to mend their tattered friendship. It does not even take him to Leaf's house, where he had planned to soothe the girl's tears with his presence. It takes him all the way to the little gulf beside Professor Oak's lab, which gradually but surely opens up into the vast ocean. And he overlooks this ocean, the moonlight caressing his pale skin, and remembers the times when the three of them, Red, Blue, and Leaf, would stare out as he was doing and dream of adventure.

He sits down quietly, carefully, as though any sound would cause the entire town to stir (which was highly improbable, since Hoothoots and Noctowls were screaming out all around and everyone was still sound asleep). He pulls out his fishing rod and flings it into the water, though he knows that all the fish (or at least, all the fish around Pallet Town) are probably knocked out as well, and waits.

He'll be there in the morning, sure enough. And then, he will do everything he must.

But for now, in this serene moment, he will give everyone a break and let them sleep. He will wait.

* * *

Just as the first few rays of sunlight sprawl against the rolling fields of Pallet Town, reaching out to trees and houses and everything in the world with a warm, golden touch, Blue's slumber is slowly disrupted.

He feels something ticklish.

His eyes feebly flutter open, and although his sight is still drowsed with slumber, he can faintly make out the color of brown, a rich, chocolaty of brown much more vibrant than his own earthy orbs. It takes him a while to register anything else, but when he can, he hears soft humming. Somewhere beside it, he feels something delicate and light, like a feather, whisper against his skin.

"Blue..." a voice croons, soft and gentle yet teasing all the same, pulling him willingly out of the remains of his pleasant dream.

It was Leaf.

Soon, his vision clears. Although he still feels groggy and would much rather just shut his eyes and disregard the whole thing, he watches the girl above him, slightly befuddled.

Why was she here?

She hovers over him, planting kisses all over his face, neck, arms, hands. She worships what skin is revealed, but doesn't dare to go further to rediscover the areas under the border of his blanket, just to frustrate him a tiny bit.

"Leaf..." he drawls out contentedly, leaning foward and locking his lips with hers.

Oh yeah.

Rediscover.

Realization strikes him happily, and he lazily urges her to switch positions with him, not breaking their kiss. She doesn't put up much of a challenge, anyways.

They had made love last night.

As they separate for air, she puts a hand to his chest, gazing up at him with tired eyes, though they had gone to bed quite early, even with all their activities beforehand. And anyways, it's not a fatigued kind of tired altogether, it's more like a _'today-is-Saturday-slash-climb-up-Mount-Silver-to- see-Red-whom-I-wish-would-just-come-down-because-I -want-my-best-friend-back'_ kind of tired.

He sighs, pressing his lips against Leaf's forehead in a poor attempt to soothe her longing heart.

It's been almost two decades since he has last heard Red speak. He still remembers the conversation.

* * *

_"I'm gonna be the bestest Trainer of all time!" Blue said confidently. They were five at the time, hanging out near the gulf that opened up to Route 21. It was their favorite place, because sometimes they would see real Trainers in the distance battling, and it alleviated their anxious minds just a little._

_"Me too!" Red chirped in excitedly. He flipped a page of the magazine they were huddled around, which Professor Oak's assistant, Mr. Elm, had lent to them._

_"Hey! There can only be one bestest Trainer!" Blue shot back. "If there are two, it wouldn't work! It's simple math."_

_"Oh," the boy said, slightly hurt and disappointed._

_"Hey!" Leaf perked up. "Maybe you guys can tie, and then you'll both be the greatest Trainers in the world!"_

_"It's bestest," Blue said. "And of all time! The world is too small for our awesomeness!" He and Red's hands slapped together in a high-five._

_"So what are you gonna be, Leaf?" Red asked curiously._

_"I don't know," she answered honestly. "Maybe I'll be a Pokemon-looker-at-person, like Professor Oak!"_

_"You should be like Nurse Joy!" Blue said. "You're really good at fixing boo-boos!"_

_"I don't know..." Leaf trailed off into the silence that followed, her face scrunched up in distaste at the suggestion._

_"... As long as we stay together, right?" Red questioned._

_"Yeah, definitely!" The other boy cheered, nudging the girl beside him for an answer._

_"Definitely," she replied, smiling._

* * *

He misses those times.

Every Saturday, Leaf and Blue gather together, long before they yet again need to face the world, and hike up Mount Silver to see their best friend Red.

They don't know if they still have that place in his life, and until recently, each other's lives, anymore, but it sounds right. Because that is how it has always been; they were all best friends who frolicked amongst the flowers and read books about Pokemon and...

It's all out of desperation, really. Just some feeling of obligation they couldn't dismiss because they all knew that they just couldn't forget about each other when they had been that close. Like family, almost, but never quite like it, because there had always been something, something, keeping them apart. And as the days wore on, that gap seemed to be grow greater than ever.

But it is worth a try, though their attempts were in vain, and Blue is happy that at least he and Leaf were back together again, closer than they had anticipated yet secretly hoped for all along.

But he would never tell her that.

He rolls off of his girlfriend, taking a deep breath before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and getting up promptly. He's not oblivious to his nakedness, but assumes since they had already seen, more so touched each other, that he didn't need to hide anything anymore. Yet when he looks back at Leaf with that teasing, boyish grin of his, her face flushes a deep crimson.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower and then we'll go, okay Miss Tomato?"

She scowls, but gets up anyways, and Blue stares at her in confusion until she blushes even more and realizes what she's doing.

"Oh... I-I-"

His smirk grows. "Well, I suppose there's room for two."

* * *

For a moment, Leaf blames the dizziness that Blue had left her in. Because surely, this couldn't... this couldn't _actually_ be him...

But he sits there, his presence stalwart and sure and not at all the ghostly chill he had been up in that dreaded mountain. He looks radiant and warm and alive, so much that Leaf somehow knows that if she were to speak to him, he'd part those sealed lips of his after over a decade and reply, his voice so familiar and comforting that it'd drive her to tears. Yet, no matter how he looks, an aura of wisdom that only an elder could possibly have surrounds him, and this is what makes her hesitant. Because it's alien to her, and she's scared to see how much and what else about him has changed.

As she gravitates toward him, Blue's feet stay firmly planted to the dirt road. Because the footprints imprinted on the ground tell of a silent promise to never leave again, but he's scared that they are lying, and he refuses to give himself false hope if they are. It seems tempting to just... run away, but he knows things will catch up to him sooner or later, no matter what, and so he follows the dirt road all the way to the end, and meets his two friends there.

They don't speak. Blue and Leaf sit on either side of Red, shoulder to shoulder, and their eyes fix on the spot in the water where the boy is staring at.

His bait bobs patiently in the water.

It doesn't budge in a long time, hours maybe, and neither do they. But they don't keep track of time.

"What are you trying to catch?" Leaf says finally. The sun beats heavily against their skin now.

Red thinks for a while. This would be a good time to find a new companion.

He remembers of a swarm of Pokemon he had heard about from Professor Oak's radio show.

"A Feebas," he says simply.

Blue's face scrunches up in disgust. A smile graces Red's lips for the first time in years.

A few moments later, his bait floats happily beside two others.

They spend the day fishing and basking in the warm glow of the sun.

* * *

**A/N: I am so proud of myself for FINALLY finishing this! :D I meant to post this sooner, but it took me nearly TWO MONTHS to even finish it up, no matter how short it is compared to other works that took maybe a week or a day or even a few hours, because I always lose inspiration in the middle of stories unless they're really short. Then it comes back over time in bursts and I always have to take advantage of them, but sometimes it's not enough. And plus, I typed this all up on my phone, so the transition from there to here took unbelievably long. And then it took me another few hours to edit and polish everything up. BUT IT'S HERE NOW! **

**And that is why I most likely will never write a series.**

**This is actually one of the longest stories I've written in a long time, and the only reason I got through was because I FREAKING LOVE RED AND BLUE AND LEAF. I don't know why, but lately I've been having an almost unhealthy obsession with them, but most of them are Blue/Leaf with Red on the side. I adore Conflictingshipping. But I don't know, I just never found someone to pair Red with in my mind (though I do love him dearly). He always just seemed like a bachelor kind of guy to me, not because he can't get a girl but because he hasn't found the right one yet. But I do like Burningleafshipping (that's what it's called, right?) a little. Then again, that happens to me with every trio (Lyra, Ethan, and Silver and Dawn, Lucas, and Barry).**

**I imagine that Blue would have, obviously, been angry and sad and disappointed when Red beat him in Indigo Plateau, but this takes place years after that, even after the events of HG and SS. I figured it'd take them a year to complete their Pokemon journey, plus one year that I just added in there for transition and reasons explained later, plus the three year gap between the time Lyra starts her journey (because I didn't play anything before the remakes, it's Lyra, because I never even knew Crystal existed until doing reasearch on Bulbapedia for accuracy, and because yes, I'm a girl, Ethan has always been the NPC), then another two years for her to go through the Johto and Kanto region and finally fight Red, which is the reason why he's coming back in the first place in this story (my theory of why he disappears after you fight him). So that's seven years, making them 18, since they are apparently 11 when they start their journey. Yes, Blue and Leaf are only 18 and have done the deed. I've seen much, much worse on this site, and at least I had the decency to make them technically adults, so I figured this was the least of my problems. And yes, Red has been up in that mountain for six years. Poor thing. I really do wonder why he still wears short sleeves in that kind of weather. But anyways, I don't think Blue would've held a grudge against the dude for that long. If he did, then he has some serious issues.  
**

**Also, according to the guidelines, this still fits into the T rated range, because it's not like I'm giving full-blown, explicit details on Blue and Leaf's fun-time. I'm just hinting to the fact that they did, and even when they kiss I don't put much detail. And anyways, I'm positive that real teens in the modern world have more knowledge of sex than this story hints at. So any little haters out there have nothing to complain about.  
**

**Also, another little thing before I end this terribly long author's note, why does everyone call Blue Green? As far as I've learned, his name is Blue.  
**

**Oh well.**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed! It's fine if you completely skipped the entire author's note, because it's just full of rambling junk anyways. Anways, if you can, please review! I love feedback! :)**


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